EuropaCorp

Background

EuropaCorp is a French movie studio founded by Luc Besson in 1992 as "Leeloo Productions". It was renamed to its current name in 2000 after Besson's old colleague, Pierre-Ange Le Pogam, joined the studio. The two separated in 2011 over creative differences.

In 2019, EuropaCorp entered an indefinite hiatus after sexual allegations were made against Besson, and as a result, its American subsidiary filed for bankruptcy protection. The studio has only released one film since, a spin-off to the Arthur film series called Arthur, malédiction.

1st Logo (2001)

Logo:

Yamakasi trailer: Just the serif text "EUROPA" and "présente" in Impact font below on a black background.

15 août trailer: Same as above, but the text is all-blue and "presente" is in all-caps and serif.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: The opening of the trailer.

Availability: Only seen on the trailers for Yamakasi and 15 août. It may have been a placeholder for the next logo.

Editor's Note: None.

2nd Logo (September 2001-)

Logo: Under a night sky, we move above a water surface with some dolphins swimming around. A light blue ovoid rises from the water and unfolds into a winged woman, who floats and flaps her wings in the middle of the big word "EUROPA", which spreads out by the water as the woman appears. The small word "CORP." appears below. The logo then gradually fades out.

Variants: A shortened version is seen on trailers.

FX/SFX: Everything in very nice and clean CGI, which still holds up today. This was done by BUF Compagnie, who later worked on the 2002 Paramount Pictures logo.

Music/Sounds: A calm dreamy soundtrack with some musical instrument inclusions. On some films, none or the opening theme of the movie.

Music/Sounds Variant: On Unleashed, the logo has sound effects on it.

Availability: Common. The logo was first seen on non-US trailers for Wasabi and debuted on the actual film itself. It has since been seen on every movie the studio produced, including the Taxi franchise (starting with Taxi 3), 3 Days to Kill, the Arthur film series, Nine Lives, Lucy and Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. Despite producing the Transporter franchise, don't expect to find this on international releases of The Transporter and The Transporter 2, as it was replaced by the 20th Century Fox logo.

Editor's Note: This is a gorgeous and relaxing logo and a favorite of many.